Potential Fire Hazards in Your Wheelie Bin: Improper Vape and Battery Disposal

Batteries remain an essential part of modern life. They power everything from smartphones to vehicles, but once they reach the end of their lifespan, they require specialist battery disposal.

Improperly disposed batteries, specifically the lithium-ion types found in rechargeable devices like vapes, pose a massive safety risk to your containers, our employees, and equipment, and the environment.

In recent months, we have noticed a huge increase in batteries and vapes being wrongly placed in containers and causing fires.  This is not isolated to Brown Recycling and is an industry wide issue.

How Does this Happen?

Batteries often turn into “zombie batteries”, a term referring to discarded batteries that are no longer functional but still hold some residual charge. These batteries often end up in the regular waste stream or recycling bins, where they can cause serious harm if not handled properly.

The most common culprits are lithium-ion batteries, almost always found in vapes, electric cigarettes, smartphones, laptops, power tools and other sorts of portable electronics.

Why is Improper Battery Disposal a Hazard?

The leftover charge within zombie batteries can lead to seemingly random fires and explosions if subjected to physical stress. When these batteries come into contact with other metal objects or are crushed, pierced, or exposed to high temperatures, the residual energy can trigger a small explosion.

Since the ban on single use vapes in the UK in June 2025, there has been a rise in rechargeable vapes. Because these contain lithium-ion batteries, they are a major fire hazard if thrown in the general waste. They also require manual disassembly, making them very difficult to recycle without the right processes in place.

This poses a severe risk to waste management workers, recycling facilities, and even households.

Disposal Dos and Don’ts

To help your team stay safe and compliant, we’ve put together a clear guide on what belongs in your general waste containers and what needs to be kept separate.

As our guide demonstrates, items like coffee cups and floor sweepings are fine, but vapes and batteries are a strict “No” for general waste or other Simpler Recycling streams.

What Can You Do to Prevent These Hazards?

Steps to Prevent a fire or accident starts before the waste even reaches your container. Here’s our advice:

1. Educate and train your team so that they understand that vapes and batteries are hazardous waste, not just “rubbish”. Creating awareness is the first step in preventing accidents.
2. Provide clearly labelled recycling points with designated battery and vape disposal containers. Labelling ensures that your waste is segregated correctly.
3. Regularly inspect waste, guaranteeing that batteries and vapes are not being discarded with general waste or any other waste streams. Addressing issues immediately helps to avoid any potential hazards or fire risks.
4. Consistently reinforce the message with employee reminders and updates to help promote the importance of safe disposal practices.

We’re Here to Help

To support you in maintaining safe disposal practices, we offer containers for all types of batteries, including lithium-ion. These containers are designed to safely collect and store batteries until they can be properly recycled. At Brown Recycling, we want to make compliant disposal as easy as possible. To tackle the specific rise in vape waste, we’ve introduced the Vape Vessel.

This is a dedicated, portable container designed specifically for the safe collection of used vapes. It can hold up to 750 units (12kg) and is engineered to contain hazardous materials securely, minimising fire risks while keeping your business fully compliant with WEEE and Hazardous Waste regulations.

We offer specialised containers for all battery types, including lithium-ion and vapes. These are designed to store these items safely until they can be professionally recycled, removing the risk of fire from your site and ours.

Find Out More

If you need to arrange a dedicated battery collection or want to order a Vape Vessel for your site, get in touch with our Customer Support team or use our handy Get a Quote Builder form.